Today
is our second week in our study of the epistle of James, the half-brother of
Jesus. Last Sunday, we looked at James’
introductory text where he wrote to Jewish Christians about persevering through
the trials of life. We noted that James
warned his audience to not mistakenly think that the trials of life were only
the difficult things. It is just as easy
for family, wealth, power, fame, or any other blessing to become a trial for
someone growing in their faith. Good
gifts can be especially damaging to our faith when we don’t see them for what
they actually are, gifts from God.
Everything that we have and all that we call our own, are actually gifts
from God. Our families, our earthly
successes, even our faith itself, all find their origins in God Almighty. Trials come through both hardships and
abundant blessings.
James
links these opening sentiments about trials as opportunities for growth with
the words for today by using the phrase “Know this.” Now, even though it may read as an imperative
in our English translations, the original Greek actually conveys a meaning of
“you know this.” It’s similar to if I
were explaining how to start a car. I
would go through the things you need to check before starting, then say, “but
you know this” and then continue on with the rest of my instructions. James is encouraging these tribes in the
Dispersion (and us as well) by saying in essence, “Look, you already know what
I’ve said, it’s nothing new. You also
know what I’m about to tell you.” He
goes on and says that “every person [should] be quick to hear, slow
to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the
righteousness of God.” Now,
James isn’t giving us advice here about how to deal with others, but he’s
telling us how we are to approach the Word of God and listen to it without
becoming angry or spouting off all of our objections. Yes, there is great wisdom in being slow to
speak and slow to get angry in conversation or dealing with other people, but
that isn’t the main focus of James’ words here, and we know that from the
context. He’s talking about how we are
to respond to God’s word.
James
calls his audience to “put away all filthiness and rampant
wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
your souls.” He’s saying that
part of the way in which we learn to listen is by doing these things; putting
away filthiness and wickedness and receiving the implanted word. What’s odd about James’ phrasing here is that
the order is backwards from how God actually works. You see, in terms of our coming to faith, we
first receive God’s word (whether it be through Scripture, prayer, or some form
of general revelation) and then we work at putting away the wickedness of our
lives. After all, how can we know what
is truly wicked and filthy until we have received God’s word, which tells us
what is filthy and what is wicked.
However, James is being very pastoral here. He’s not looking at it from a theological
perspective, but from a pastoral one.
He’s seeing it as we often do from our earthly perspective, that we have
to remove the filthy before we are worthy of receiving the holy. One of the most frustrating things as a
pastor is when someone tells me that their reason for leaving the church or not
coming back to church is because they don’t feel as if they are holy enough or
good enough to be part of the bride of Christ.
It’s like what C.S. Lewis once said, “My argument against God was that
the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I gotten this idea of just and
unjust? A man does not call a line
crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I
called it unjust?” James is telling us
here that we’re not expected to have all the evil shed before coming to Christ,
but that part of the process of coming to him is the shedding of this
wickedness. I love the fact that James
doesn’t focus too much on the order of things, but works at really driving home
what it all means in the next few verses.
He really works at telling us how we are to respond to God’s word.
“But
be does of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Notice that James doesn’t say to be doers
above hearers or that hearing isn’t important, but he says that we must be
doers and hearers. If that word “only”
wasn’t there then we might could give doing some supremacy over hearing, but
it’s there. Sure, it’s important to read
God’s word, read literature containing sound doctrine, and hear sound preaching
and teaching, but what good is it if you’re never stirred to any action. I’ve often been puzzled at how so many
Christians can sit in churches much like this one and hear sound, articulate
calls for going out into the world and witnessing to others (not that I always
make such presentations), yet as soon as worship is concluded they do their
best to remain as isolated from others as they can and to distance themselves
from ever coming in contact with anyone who is in need of hearing the gospel or
experiencing the love of Christ. Hearing
or reading God’s word ought to be an emotional event each and every time it
occurs. There’s a new movie that’s out
in some theaters, however, not a majority of them, titled The Hunting Ground. This
movie is about the rising problem of sexual assault of young women on college
campuses. Shamefully, this issue has
been overlooked many times in our culture, especially when it pertains to
college athletes. I was listening to the
radio the other day when a female radio host said, “I dare anyone to watch this
film and hear the experiences of these women and to continue to treat this
issue so nonchalantly.” That’s the type
of sentiment we ought to have towards the gospel. “I dare anyone to hear the word of God and be
able to see the world as nonchalantly as we currently seem to view it.”
James
goes on to write, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at
once forgets what he was like.”
In other words, we look at or we hear God’s word without ever really
getting it or seeing it. As soon as we end
our reading of it or we leave church or we’re not around our church family,
then it is as if there is no impact upon our lives. It’s like when you tell your kids (or in some
of your cases employees) to stop fighting and they do it for a few seconds and
then as soon as one of you leaves the room they go right back to it. They never listened; there was never any real
impact. “But to the one who looks into the
perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets
but a does who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” Now, these phrases perfect law and law of
liberty are references to Scripture and the gospel respectively. In other words, it’s as if James is saying
“But for those of you who read and hear God’s word and receive the good news of
the gospel and don’t turn a deaf ear to it, but instead become active workers
on behalf of God, God will certainly bless you in your endeavors.” Doesn’t this have the same feel to it as the
passage earlier in this epistle when James said that the “crown of life” would be received by those who remained “steadfast under trial”? James is driving home the point of
acknowledging the difficulties of being a doer of the word, but never once does
he diminish the necessity of being such a doer.
As Tom Hanks said in the movie A League of Their Own, “It’s supposed to
be hard. If it were easy, everyone would
do it.” The good news for us is that we
are not left alone to accomplish such work.
We are given the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish glorious and
wonderful things for the kingdom of God.
James
finishes his opening chapter by saying, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does
not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is
worthless. Religion that is pure and
undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself
unstained from the world.”
Wow! There certainly is a lot there
from James and only a little time to comment on it. First, we cannot miss the connection between
the bridling of the tongue in v. 26 and the call to be slow to speak in v.
19. Throughout this entire text, James
has been encouraging his audience to not speak at/to the word of God, but to
let the word of God speak to them.
There’s absolutely nothing that we need to add to God’s message to
complete it. Don’t misunderstand me;
things like the WCF and the catechisms are wonderful, but they are not additions
to God’s word. What they are are
summations of God’s word so that teaching the principles contained in Scripture
becomes much easier. In fact, the first
chapter of WCF (On Holy Scripture) speaks to the supremacy of Scripture above
all other sources.
A
second thing to take from this closing section of chapter one is the activeness
with which our faiths are to operate.
This is the same point that James has already made about being not only
hearers of the word, but doers as well.
He says that true religion, the right response to God’s word, is to
reach out to those in need and to seek to live a life that is in line with
God’s will as it is laid out in his word.
I’m going to be really frank here about what this means and how it
applies to our lives as we sit here today.
James is telling his audience that if your faith is such that all you do
is listen to God’s word and you never act upon it, then it’s worthless, it’s of
no saving value. In other words, if the
extent of your faith is attending church and maybe doing some little devotional
each day without actually becoming active in your faith, then it’s worthless,
you might as well not be doing anything at all.
The view of Christianity that places attendance in worship as if it is
the ultimate expression of faith is quite honestly a Christian faith that is
unbiblical. Yes, it’s a part of it, but
not the whole. If a student went through
med-school and never dealt with one patient, never learned anything new, or
never practiced any of what was taught to him, but had perfect attendance would
you let him operate on you? Absolutely
not, why we wouldn’t even consider that man/woman to be a real doctor. Well, why in the world would we consider a
person who simply goes to church but never grows and never puts their faith
into practice to be a real Christian?
It’s
not about faith versus works. It’s not
about being justified or saved by what we do versus what we believe. It’s about a faith that works. It’s about our hearing the word of God and
responding to it by doing something, anything.
However, the sad fact of the matter is that many Christians who attend
church on Sunday mornings have already allowed that “gospel feeling” to leave
their bodies before Sunday lunch is even paid for. Friends, don’t have that type of faith. After all, as James tells us, “[that]
person’s religion is worthless.”
Instead have a faith that works.
Do something with your faith. Be
not just hearers, but doers as well. Glory
be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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